Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
“A 44-year-old woman from Monroe County was killed today as an automobile driven by a former Olympic Medalist missed a stop sign and collided with her vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle was not hurt.”
“Police say three men were fatally wounded as gunfire broke out in a downtown neighborhood around 1am Monday night. No names were released until the families of the deceased have been notified.”
“There is no new information in the search for a 12-year-old girl who is missing from her home in Texas. Police are still searching for any clues in connection with her disappearance.”
“Fifty Iraqi soldiers were killed today when a road-side bomb detonated as their vehicle passed.”
“An earthquake registering 6.9 on the Richter scale leveled homes and businesses in Indonesia Tuesday, killing thousands and leaving tens of thousands more homeless.”
We report the news these days like mindless, heartless automatons. We show no connection to any of the stories, no human compassion is revealed. Just this emotionless, objective presentation of the facts.
And then when we add emotion, it usually deals with our protected areas of ideals or beliefs. We fight hard against those who would undermine our way of living or our worldviews.
But we calmly report the devastation of a single family’s life. The complete collapse of one individual’s world, and the ripples large and small that are felt through the fabric of their personal relationships.
I was listening to a Christian radio station this morning, and they reported the news in the same way you might hear anywhere else. Disconnected. Heartless. The first story mentioned above was accurately quoted – it was the one I heard that got my attention this morning – though, it may have been more real… more connected… if reported like this:
“We heard today of a local man, [Name Here], whom you may remember as an Olympic medalist in the 2002 Olympics. [Man’s Name] missed a stop sign and collided with the car that [Woman’s Name] was driving. She was a [Something Descriptive about her Life] from [This Town]. She was killed in the collision. [Man’s Name] was not injured physically, but must be dealing with a lot of other pain at the moment.”
OK, so it would take 5-10 more seconds, but it connects. It shows that we care. It shows we realize that each of these tragedies we so calmly report happen to REAL people. I was wishing today that somehow the news reporters could actually, personally know each of the people involved in these stories, or at least report as though they did. How differently these stories would come across then. Not just facts, but lives… shared.
As though we were in this together?
Now THAT would be news.
The media has no right to make tragic events public, especially by more or less condemning specific people by adding their names to the report. I think a detached report, if it must be made, is better because it means that it doesn’t embarrass/humiliate/ostricize the poor souls involved.
On the other hand, I would agree that public praise of specific individuals can be a good thing, especially the “nobodies” of everyday america …
Chris, I respectfully but quite strongly disagree.
Perhaps you just misunderstood my original post. But I so strongly disagree with your reply that I must comment.
First, the media DO use first names, and I was not debating their “right” to do that or not. I did not recall the specific name, thus the generic replacements in my quote. I was not attempting to curb the invasion in to private lives.
Further, to offer a detached report does not save face for the perpetrator or victim or subject of the story, nor does it protect them in any way (at least none that is worth the achieved result.) What is achieved is a constant, progressing desensitization of all of us as individuals and as a nation to the personal tragedies that happen everyday.
The person who was stabbed this morning in Rochester is not a news story. They are not a poilce report. And they are not a number. They are a family member, a spouse, a child, a friend, a neighbor…. and so on.
By detaching ourselves from the story, we detach value from humanity. We lessen the value of each of us as we report emotionless, fact-listing “stories” (which also devalues the word “story” I might add) about real events that occurred to real people involved in real relationships in real communities.
No, detachment (as is taught in classes of journalism everywhere) is not helpful in my opinion… only detrimental.